A tale of 2 central banks

The Bank of Japan today announced an expansion of its stimulus plan. Although, its asset purchase program will stay unchanged at Y80 trillion per year, it increased the size and reach of some of its lending schemes from 7T to 10T Yen. The announcement helped provide markets with some confidence after last week’s decision by the SNB to drop the currency peg which, had hurt investors’ trust towards central banks around the world.

The Bank of England also met today and it stood to keep the interest rate policy unchanged on the face of a positive employment picture. Despite low core inflation, wage growth increased comfortably at 3-month average pace of 1.8%.

Aside from central banks news, gold today reached $1300 for the first time since last August as investors continue to shift to risk-off positions.

US Markets

In the US trading might be subdued given the lack of major economic releases. Markets will be on edge as they await Thursday’s ECB decision.